As is well known, the Digital Visual Interface (DVI) standard has come into wide use as the standard for transmitting a digital video signal. In recent years, the High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) standard has been employed as a digital signal transmission standard that further improves on the foregoing DVI standard.
The HDMI standard includes the following various stipulations, which are not defined in the DVI standard. For example, a digital audio signal can be multiplexed for a blanking interval of a digital video signal to perform audio transmission. The digital video signal is transmitted in an RGB signal format. In addition, the digital video signal can be transmitted in a YCbCr signal formal or in a higher quality YPbPr format. Connection is possible using a compact HDMI connector similar to a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector.
In addition, according to the HDMI standard, authentication may be conducted between a transmitting device and a receiving device prior to transmitting a signal, so that the transmitting device can output the signal in a form suitable for performance of a receiving device. In this case, the transmitting device acquires extended display identification data (EDID) from the receiving device, thereby recognizing a receiving specification of the receiving device, and outputs the signal in a form suitable for the receiving specification.
As described above, signal transmission methods based on the HDMI standard are widely available in the market, but in general, transmission methods based on the USB standard are widely employed as a signal transmission between, for example, a personal computer (PC) and a peripheral device thereof. Therefore, one solution is to incorporate the signal transmission functions of both of the HDMI standard and the USB standard into a device, but in such case, it is cumbersome for the user to operate the device. Moreover, the number of connected cables increases, and the size of area in which the connectors are implemented increases.